CityFibre Invest £30m to Rollout FTTP Broadband in Hastings and St Leonards

Network operator CityFibre has today confirmed that they’ll invest £30 million to rollout their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network to 60,000 premises across the East Sussex town of Hastings (including St Leonards) in England – reaching “almost every home and business across the area.”

The location has been on the operator’s rollout plan for over a year, although they’ve only now confirmed the details. Construction work on the Full Fibre network in Hastings will begin “later this year“, with St Leonards to follow, but we don’t yet know how long it will take to complete. The figure of 60,000 premises also suggests that CityFibre may be intending to catch some surrounding areas too.

The latest build forms part of CityFibre’s wider £4.9bn investment programme to cover up to 8 million premises – across around 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here). So far, the operator has already covered 1.7 million UK premises – with 1.5m ‘Ready For Service‘ via a supporting ISP (here).

Adrian Smith, Area Manager, said:

“The next chapter in Hastings and St Leonards’ story starts here. Our builders will soon get to work on a Full Fibre network – and we think people will be amazed by the difference it will make, both now and for future generations.

Our investment will bring Full Fibre to 60,000 homes across Hastings, bringing faster speed and more reliable connectivity to residents. This is an essential upgrade which will futureproof the towns for decades to come and deliver a number of wider economic benefits.”

Once again, CityFibre will face some competition from gigabit-capable broadband rivals in the area, with Openreach already deploying FTTP and Lightning Fibre also appearing to be at work in the same location (here), although it’s unclear how far the latter has got with their project in the town.